The table below indicates the percentage of ballots for which the #1 ranked candidate was elected; the percentage of ballots for which the #1 or #2 ranked candidate was elected; and the percentage of ballots for which the #1, #2, or #3 ranked candidate was elected.

Voter Success in Cambridge Elections

Election

elect

candidates

valid

invalid

total ballots

Pct #1 elected

Pct #1 or #2 elected

Pct #1, #2, or #3 elected

Pct none elected

Pct blank

1997 Council

9

19

16879

350

17229

88.7

96.2

97.6

1.6

0.3

1999 Council

9

24

18777

384

19161

76.5

92.5

95.5

3.0

0.5

2001 Council

9

19

17126

562

17688

83.8

94.0

96.2

2.8

1.1

2003 Council

9

20

20080

878

20958

72.7

87.0

91.0

6.7

2.0

2005 Council

9

18

16070

132

16202

78.7

93.4

96.1

2.6

0.5

2007 Council

9

16

13633

88

13721

79.3

93.2

96.0

2.9

0.4

2009 Council

9

21

15995

118

16073

75.1

90.9

94.1

4.3

0.6

2011 Council

9

18

15845

126

15971

77.8

92.6

95.5

3.3

0.5

2013 Council

9

25

17743

103

17846

68.6

87.8

93.0

4.9

0.4

2015 Council

9

23

17854

105

17959

71.7

90.4

94.8

3.3

0.3

2017 Council

9

26

22524

72

22596

68.7

87.0

92.8

4.7

0.2

1997 School

6

8

16386

285

16671

83.3

96.4

97.6

2.4

0.1

1999 School

6

13

17961

307

18268

76.0

91.1

94.4

4.7

0.1

2001 School

6

10

16489

1160

17649

76.2

90.5

92.6

7.1

4.8

2003 School

6

8

18698

2210

20908

81.9

89.7

90.0

10.0

8.8

2005 School

6

8

15470

719

16189

77.4

90.6

93.1

6.9

4.2

2007 School

6

9

13276

433

13709

77.0

91.2

92.7

7.1

3.0

2009 School

6

9

15423

549

15972

72.6

90.1

91.6

8.4

3.3

2011 School

6

11

15290

614

15904

77.6

90.3

92.2

6.9

3.6

2013 School

6

9

16592

1128

17720

80.9

90.0

91.2

8.5

6.2

2015 School

6

11

16797

1062

17859

69.2

84.7

88.0

11.1

5.7

2017 School

6

12

20708

1744

22452

67.2

81.5

85.2

13.3

7.7

Note: Almost all of the invalid ballots were blank ballots. It's common that some voters will vote only the City Council ballot and cast a blank School Committee ballot.

Nov 23 - The Shifting Demographic

The voter history file for the 2017 municipal election was made available yesterday, and it provides evidence of a dramatic shift toward younger voters in the recent election. This provides at least some partial explanation for the election results. Here are some histograms for the municipal election years (2013, 2015, 2017) followed by the federal/state election years (2012, 2014, 2016).

Municipal Elections: 2013 - 2017

(note the dramatic peak in the 27-29 age range)

Federal/State Elections: 2012 - 2016

The total voter turnout has dropped over the years but has remained relatively stable for the last several municipal elections. It jumped in 2017.

How We Elect Cambridge Officials: A Discussion on Proportional Representation (Lecture Hall, Cambridge Main Library)

Short Description
Did you know we vote for Cambridge City Council and School Committee through a system called Proportional Representation (PR)? Discover how PR works and learn just how much your vote counts to be better prepared for the November 7th election.

Long Description
Cambridge municipal elections happen on Tuesday, November 7th. Do you find it curious that we rank our candidates numerically when we vote? Did you know that this process of voting is called Proportional Representation? Do you know how Proportional Representation works? Do you know how it came to be that Cambridge adopted this system?

Join us for a lively panel discussion with experts on Cambridge political history. Discover how Proportional Representation works in our city. Learn just how much your vote counts to be better prepared for the November 7th election.

Howie Fain
In 1992, Fain Co-founded Fair Vote, a nonpartisan champion of electoral reforms that give voters greater choice. He served as the President of the Fair Ballot Alliance of Massachusetts from 1991-1997. Fain has been a consultant to the Cambridge Election Commission, authoring the 1994 report, Computerizing a Cambridge Tradition. Fain serves as an Executive Committee Member of VoterChoice Massachusetts and is a science teacher in the Worcester Public Schools.

Glenn Koocher
A native of Cambridge, Mass., Koocher served on the Cambridge School Committee from 1974-1985. He was the budget chair during the implementation of Proposition 2 1/2 and was actively engaged in the city's multi-year desegregation effort. Koocher was the founding host of Cambridge InsideOut, a weekly TV show on CCTV focusing on current events that aired from 1989-2000. He has written extensively on the political history of Cambridge. Koocher is currently the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

Susana Segat
Segat was a member of the Cambridge School Committee from 1996-2001. From 1999-2008, she served on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. A longtime union official, Segat was the President of the Local Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from 2003-2009. She is currently the Chief of Staff for the President of MassArt.

Robert Winters
Winters is the founding editor of the Cambridge Civic Journal, an online news source that monitors the Cambridge political scene. Starting in 1989, he spearheaded the campaign to bring curbside recycling to Cambridge. He ran for City Council several times in the 1990's. Since 2013 he has been the co-host of CCTV's Cambridge InsideOut, a remake of Glenn Koocher's original TV show, focusing on Cambridge politics. Currently, Winters is a Lecturer in Mathematics at MIT and the Harvard Extension School.

For the moment at least, all six incumbents who ran to retain their seats seem to have been reelected. We'll know for sure on Friday (Nov 17) unless the closeness of the results warrants a recount. In the meantime, here are a few items of interest on this week's agenda.

Manager's Agenda #2. Transmitting Communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $2,274,829 from Free Cash to the Mitigation Revenue Stabilization Fund. Funds appropriated to the Mitigation Revenue Stabilization Fund will be used to fund specific projects which will require individual appropriations by the City Council for the related projects in the future.

Manager's Agenda #5. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to a recommendation from the Planning Board to adopt the Alexandria Zoning Petition regarding Innovation Space in the PUD-3A and PUD-4C Districts.

Manager's Agenda #14. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report 16-86, regarding a report on which public campaign finance options are legal for municipal elections in Cambridge; and Awaiting Report 17-84, regarding potential plans and options, responsive to community concerns, for creating a program of tax revenue financing for candidates running for City Council and School Committee in the City of Cambridge.

This is a topic that deserves a lot more discussion than was ever permitted in either the NLTP Committee (no idea why it would even be discussed as part of "neighborhood and long-term planning" or "public facilities" or "arts and celebrations") or the Government Operations Committee. It's not something Cambridge could even do without approval from the State Legislature and it's not at all clear that such approval would be forthcoming. In addition, there has been no indication of what scale of funding would be asked - and that's important in light of the fact that the total campaign expendtitures for the recent City Council election now totals about $600,000 and climbing. The correlation between campaign spending and electoral results is also not at all clear. The cost per #1 vote as of today among successful City Council campaigns runs from a low of $9.75 to a high of $33.50 (these numbers will rise).

It's also worth noting that MANY Cambridge voters are now consulting the Cambridge Candidate Pages and other resources to learn about candidates, and that costs NOTHING. Indeed the number of visitors to the Cambridge Candidate Pages last week went like this: Nov 4: 1,082; Nov 5: 1699; Nov 6: 6,632; Nov 7 (Election Day): 11,058; Nov 8: 3,584; Nov 9: 941. That's a lot of visits for an election that had about 22,600 voters, and the Cambridge Candidate Pages aren't even linked from any City website.

Charter Right #1. That the City Manager is requested to appoint a Transportation Task Force to develop a large and comprehensive street safety and education plan that speaks to the needs of bicyclist, motorists, and pedestrians, and that can be easily disseminated and understood by all citizens. [Charter Right exercised by Mayor Simmons on Oct 30, 2017]

At this point I'm leaning toward the belief that we should transition toward a single Transportation Board that has subcommittees for transit, motor vehicles, bicycling, and pedestrians. Single issue advocacy has become King and ideas like balance and collaboration among stakeholders has become all but lost. It's become militant with single-issue advocates using social media to pack any and all meetings. I gave up going to these meetings. It's become just Bad Political Theater at this point and, contrary to claims of relative safety, it's really all about turf - establish a beachhead and then defend it even against reasonable criticism.

Order #1. That the City Manager is requested to work with the relevant City departments and report back to the City Council with an update on the City’s plans to expand the curbside composting program citywide. Councillor Cheung

Committee Report #1. A communication was received from Donna P. Lopez, City Clerk, transmitting a report from Councillor Dennis J. Carlone and Councillor Leland Cheung, Co-Chairs of the Ordinance Committee, for a public hearing held on Oct 12, 2017 to discuss a Zoning Petition filed by Christopher D. Smith, et al., to create a new Section 13.913 Graduate Student Housing Production Requirement. This petition would require new graduate housing to be built in conjunction with the development of commercial uses in the proposed Planned Unit Development 7 District as well as a phasing plan to implement graduate housing development.

Everyone agrees with the idea that MIT and other universities should provide adequate housing options for their students. As we saw with the recent Volpe Petition, this has been acknowledged by MIT and they are planning accordingly. This Smith Petition, on the other hand, is not only moot but misdirected. - Robert Winters